The world's biggest banks are preparing a rearguard action against attempts by governments around the world to split them up.

Papers to be presented on Monday by Peter Sands, chief executive of Standard Chartered, will make the case for the role of international banking groups. Work on the banks' defence case began before the US passed legislation yesterday to shake up Wall Street but is being finalised at a time when the UK government is pledging to launch a commission to look at ways to break up banks.

Sands is chairman of a committee on regulation run by the Institute of International Finance that will front the lobby group's review of how to tackle banks perceived to be "too big to fail". The Standard Chartered chief has proved influential in the debate, being at the helm of a bank that survived the financial crisis without a taxpayer bailout. He has previously made the case against breaking up banks.

However, shares in Goldman Sachs, one of the Wall Street firms expected to be hit hardest by President Obama's reforms, rose yesterday, when the laws passed by the Senate were found to be less draconian than feared. "So much of it is still up in the air," one Wall Street specialist said.

It is not yet clear exactly how the Volcker rule – named after the former Federal Reserve boss Paul Volcker and intended to stop banks' riskier business – will operate in practice. Along with the crisis hitting the eurozone, the uncertainly has helped to unsettle share markets, and comes as bankers in Britain wait for more details about a new commission to be overseen by a cabinet sub-committee chaired by George Osborne, the chancellor.

Bruce Packard, banks analyst at Seymour Pierce, said that the implications for the UK banks of changes being made in the US were still unclear.

"Both HSBC and Royal Bank of Scotland [RBS] have US deposits, and have large 'global markets' businesses – over a third of revenue, and currently more than two-thirds of profits," Packard said.

"The key uncertainty is how 'prop trading' will be defined by the regulator – for instance whether the final version of the reform bill that goes to Obama should allow banks to continue to trade swaps. Large US banks have warned that proposed changes were contributing to the market turmoil," Packard added.

While Barclays has a large investment banking operation in the US, analysts are less concerned about the impact on its business on Wall Street as it not a major taker of deposits in the US.

Bank shares took the Wall Street changes in their stride. Barclays was 4% higher at 2.98p while RBS was off 1% at 45.25p and HSBC was down 0.5% at 629p.